Thursday, May 13, 2010

#73...Childhood hero

Unlike other girls or guys at my age like this guy, but to me it like my very first love. The first time i seen this movie i kinda make him one of my heroes..;)) so coincidence yesterday me and my mon petite ami manage to get this ticket to watching especially on the night of the premier. This moon face gurl so elated...

So far this one of the best movie for this year, will be one of my favorite. Will i watch it for the second time, Yes! hehheeeee ;-P...
So now i wanna share about this movie review..enjoy!

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Well, they did it again. Academy Award-winner Russel Crowe teamed up once more with director Ridley Scott — a cooperation that gave us Gladiator (2000) — to do Robin Hood, with Crowe in the title role.

This is not the only team-up that Crowe is revisiting. Robin Hood producer Brian Grazer also worked with him on A Beautiful Mind (2001) and American Gangster (2007), while screenwriter Brian Helgeland worked with Crowe previously on L.A. Confidential (1997). All those movies were successful, and Robin Hood seems set to add another notch on Crowe's oversized belt.

The story is set in 13th century England, where Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and challenge the crown to alter the balance of power between the king and all of his subjects. Whether outlaw or hero, one man from humble beginnings will become an eternal symbol of freedom for his people. Or so says the synopsis

Robin Hood chronicles the life of an expert archer and soldier, previously interested only in self-preservation, while in service of King Richard I’s army against the French. Upon Richard’s death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion (played by Cate Blanchett), a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest.

Hoping to earn the hand of Maid Marion and salvage the village, Robin assembles a gang whose lethal mercenary skills are matched only by their appetite for life. With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure. This unlikeliest of heroes and his allies set off to protect their country from slipping into bloody civil war and return glory to England once more.

However, this re-imagining of the English normfolk figure does not show the same grand spectacle as Gladiator, as deep and meaningful as A Beautiful Mind or as dramatic as L.A. Confidential. Robin Hood is not a bad movie.

Far from it, this movie is quite enjoyable. In fact, you can tell from the beginning that this is a different story than a lot of other Robin Hood incarnations, in particular the Kevin Costner vehicle, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Mel Brook's Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) as well as various other adaptations.

Usually, the accepted ending to a Robin Hood story is the return of King Richard I, ending all problems with Prince John. As pointed out before, this is actually taken from Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe, which also features Robin Hood as a supporting character.

In this movie, King Richard I dies in the first 10 minutes, potentially making audiences familiar with other Robin Hood tales curious as to how this version will unfold. This is a master-stroke of storytelling, as it makes the tired story fresh again.

Furthermore, Robin Hood has always been left-leaning in its philosophies and politics. 'Rob the rich to give to the poor' might as well be early beginnings of Socialism or even a well-structured economy which relies on taxes. Robin Hood takes this further and turns it, somewhere in the movie, into a rousing speech against England's tyrannical monarchy under King John. In fact, Crowe could have been reading some sort of democratic proclamation of a sorts, as English warlords rebel against the king's brutal taxation in the midst of a French sneak attack

The best thing about Robin Hood is the acting. Crowe and Blanchett can certainly pull off a great Robin Hood and Maid Marion — the mature version, of course. Both showed why they won Academy Awards before with a simple yet endearing portrayal of budding love amidst older people.


The rest of the cast were also entertaining to watch, especially Oscar Isaac who plays Prince John. His perverted, spoiled, insecure portrayal is very reminiscent of young people promoted into positions of power. The big battle scenes were fairly fun to watch, though it must be said that Prince of Thieves had more impact with the drama as well as the action.

However, Costner's acting in that movie is nowhere near Crowe's silent, deadly figure. If only there were more engaging plot points in Robin Hood, it would have been a better watch. While at first this seems like an attempt to make the story more realistic, that soon falls apart as Marion joins the fight in what can only be described as a last-ditch 'Bollywood-esque' attempt at theatrics.


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Who is Robin Hood

The tales of the daring Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men have been a part of English literature — oral and written — for centuries. The story of a bandit living in the woods who is also an expert archer, has survived and been passed down through generations, morphing as each era added to the evolving canon.


Stretching far back into the medieval period of the 9th century with tales of “Robin the Be-header” and finding literary form with surviving 15th- and 16th-century ballads such as A Gest of Robyn Hode, Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar and Robin and the Monk.

As far as anyone knows, however, there’s no one actual Robin to whom anyone can look to as the single authentic figure. There are suggestions that the surname Robehod was often applied to a man after he became an outlaw, while there is speculation that “Robin Hood” was a moniker applied by thieves

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